Building an Enigma 460

Fantasma on Kluane Lake

2010-08-20T16:23:00.000-07:00

Some video from Fantasma in the Yukon.

Cruising Kluane Lake

2010-08-19T09:02:00.000-07:00

Back to the Yukon for a few days of sunny cruising on Kluane. A wonderful breezy day sandwiched between a couple of relaxing light wind days and lots of sun and unusually warm weather. There were times we thought we were in Baja.

Things we learned: Sailing with the removable hatch off in light winds creates a lot more room. You can sit/stand on the foredeck underway when sculling. She will carry full sail upwind in 12-15 knots. Indeed, she needs the power to point. Easily handles 18 - 20 knots & chop off the wind. Very comfortable. This is a fun boat that inspires confidence in breezy weather.

1st Sailing Trip - Valdez, Alaska

2010-08-18T10:48:00.000-07:00

We launched in Valdez for a week long trip on Prince William Sound. Rainy weather was not atypical and it was calm. Kate and I sculled and cooked ashore the first night then slept on board after realizing that the site we hoped to put our tent on would be perilously close to underwater at 1 a.m. We had timed our trip perfectly to catch spring tides!

We slept cozily aboard while Fantasma floated to her anchor overnight and we woke up on the hard again in the morning. The flood floated us off after a casual breakfast into some nice upwind sailing in about 10 knots. More sculling and some light wind work into Shoup Bay. No camping ashore here due to the spring tides and thick vegetation. We put an anchor over and cooked and slept aboard. A little cozy moving equipment around on board but very do-able.

Did I mention it has been a rainy summer on the Sound and was raining almost the whole time? The forecast for the rest of the week was for rain and light (no) winds. We were learning to scull well enough, but it is slow. 2 knots when you are working at it, a bit less if you are loafing.

OK, that's enough dampness for now. We sculled the 7+ NM back to Valdez and headed for plan B. Kluane Lake in the Yukon. PWS is spectacular but we will be a bit more discriminating about the forecast and the tides when planning our next trip.

We learned how to scull and worked out basic anchor handling. We really loaded her up with weight, heavier than ever before and she loved it. Really, she sailed the best ever, more stable, more weatherly, with just the right amount of weather helm upwind. We knew we could both sleep aboard comfortably, but we that 2 of us anchored out could have a pleasant overnight aboard, even in the rain. One small issue was that in this cool humidity, the windows condensed water and required almost constant wiping to maintain visibility. I haven't installed the forward vent, so that didn't help, but I don't think it would have prevented the degree of condensation that we experienced.

Sculling Trial

2010-08-02T12:10:00.001-07:00

The yuloh came out well. A couple of shots from the first sculling trial. Really the first time sculling for me. Felt like I was getting the hang of it after a few minutes but lots of room for improvement. At least I can move the boat around in a calm.

The yuloh handle projects off the bow when stowed. The blade lays on the tapered side deck.

Making the Yuloh

2010-07-19T21:07:00.000-07:00

Have formed a yuloh from Matt's plan for the Paradox yuloh. Interestingly, the plan calls for the yuloh to be curved with 30mm of camber. I laminated a couple of tight grained douglas fir boards together to form the curved blank. After trimming the laminated boards to dimension on the band saw, I took the trimmed off scraps and laminated them back onto the blank to build up sections that were a few mm under dimension. The blade area needed to be a few mm wider and the handle needed to be a few mm thicker.

Here is the squared up blank with trimmed off strips laminated on to build up the low areas.

Yesterday I shaped the yuloh with a hand plane, a fairing board and a sander. Then filled some nicks and sanded the yuloh today. The photos don't show the ingenious shape of the plan. I put it on the deck of the boat to see how it will stow. (blade alongside the deckhouse). I fits beautifully. The curve conforms perfectly to to the curve of the deck. How did he do that?

Stability Trial

2010-06-21T09:48:00.000-07:00

With the ~220 lbs of steel plate ballast secured to the floor, it was time for a stability trial. The video shows 2 trials with the mast below water level.

In the first trial, there are also a couple of sand bags (~ 2 x 60 lbs = 120 lbs) lashed to the floor in addition to the steel plate (6 pieces, ~ 220lbs total).

The second trial is without the sand bags, steel plate only. The difference is pretty subtle.

We also did a couple of tests with me in the boat (no video) and from my view it didn't seem like there was much difference in observed stability.

It is noteworthy that I was able to enter the boat when the top of the mast was in the water. The cabin coaming was still a few inches out of the water even with my weight on it while entering. If the boat were heavily laden, this might not be the case, but the hull would likely be even stiffer in that condition.

The boat is pretty tender when upright but stiffens up remarkably when heeled. The second trial was in deeper water. The boat stiffens up even more as soon as the deckhouse is in the water. It is a very noticeable increase. You can see in the video that I was trying to push the mast to the bottom but was not able to do so. All very encouraging.

Note also that in these first trials, the sail is down. In a real knockdown, the sail would be up, there would be more weight aloft and the rig might catch water and dig in as the hull is pushed toward it by wind and waves.

Back in the Water

2010-06-21T08:25:00.000-07:00

Fantasma is finally back in the water after a long winter! We had her out on Chilkat Inlet near Haines, Alaska for some light wind sailing over the weekend. I am still refining some of her features and capabilities.

I have been having an issue with the boat developing the light weather helm it should have when on the wind. At Matt's suggestion, I trimmed 75mm off the rudder (oh, I hated doing that!). That did seem to help just a little bit but hasn't solved the problem. Next step is to fit a gripe (wood strip) on the forefoot. I will post on this and the results.

The other development is that I have secured the steel plank ballast to the floor with a couple of 1x2 hardwood strips along the interior of the chine in the cabin. (I get some pictures up of this too).
This allowed some basic stability tests to be done this weekend.

Happy Holidays!

2010-01-02T13:59:00.000-08:00

Fantasma is snowed in!

Pine Lake Video

2009-07-22T10:24:00.000-07:00

Here is some wacky video from the recent sailing session.

Trials with More Ballast

2009-07-21T09:46:00.001-07:00

I finally have arranged for more a trial with more ballast. Fantasma now sports about 220 lbs. of steel plate as ballast. The plate are fashioned into 6 removable planks held in by hardwood strips.

For this daysail in light to moderate winds, I also added 2 x ~ 80 lb sandbags at the mast. That brings gross up to the 800 - 900 lb range, which is in the ball park for what Matt recommends.

Also on board for part of the session were 2 passengers (plenty of room for 3) and this brought total weight up over 1000 lbs. She handled that fine, more than fine, as I think she liked it even better.

All-in-all she was well behaved and fairly stiff with this amount of ballast.

This jibing photo is singlehanded (8-900 lbs) and shows her level and getting down to DWL.

These close reach and close hauled photos show her slightly heeled and the chine digging in.

There is still a bit of lee helm upwind in lighter breezes, but the additional ballast has helped.

Paint and Windows

2009-06-16T18:26:00.000-07:00

Fantasma is sporting more paint these days. It has the waterline on it now. In addition, the lexan windows are in.
Next comes the internal ballast and back to the water for more testing.

More Mast Rake

2009-03-08T11:13:00.000-07:00

It seemed to me on the last trial that the boat wanted more weather helm when on the wind. (There really wasn't any at all.) I spoke with Matt about this and he suggested more mast rake via moving the step. I planned for this adjustment and have not permanently fixed the step yet. It is secured temporarily by a single bolt. I moved the step 75mm forward, which seems like alot but I didn't want an ambivalent result. Here is a photo at anchor. Compare with the prior post. Sailing in 15 plus knots, all points, over and under powered. With this rake the boat rounds up on her own when overpowered, but it does it in well-behaved way, then will bear off again once the gust passes. All a good thing, in my view but will see what Matt has to say. I may try a mid-point and see if I like that better. The boat tracks well on most points, especially on a beat and in a consistent breeze. With this ballast (~270 lbs of water in 5 gallon cube shaped jugs), she is remarkably stiff once heeled as long as one sits on bottom. In moderate (underpowered) conditions, a helm seat (eyes above cabin combing) works great.

At Anchor After a 2nd Trial

2009-03-02T20:40:00.000-08:00

Here is Fantasma at anchor. Did I mention the name of the boat? Fantasma. Spanish for ghost or spirit. Kind of a play on the Enigma theme, too.

In this picture she has 270 lbs of water in jugs for ballast. I am thinking this is less effective than more dense, lower sitting ballast of the same weight.

I sailed her again yesterday and this trial was in both light and shifty conditions and in more wind than the prior one. I will say that I would like her to have a wider range of stability than she has at the moment. It is not clear to me that she will recover from a knockdown with this amount of ballast. Mind you I am going to wait until the windows and hatch are in place (hopefully) before pushing the limits in this department. In any case, she stood up well to 15 - 18 knots of breeze and bay chop. Drove up wind well enough with reefed sail plan and even without windows, only a few drops of spray came in through the cutouts. She doesn't seem to throw much water up off her weather bow.

she has a bit of lee helm which is not right, and I have talked with matt about this and actually set up the mast step with this adjustment in mind. I will rake the rig aft a bit and see if that doesn't help her balance out a bit better on the wind. Also, the sheet tends to snag on the rudder when going from starboard to port, so have a small modification to do in that department. All in all, quite happy with her at this point. Just a few bugs to work out. this is why we are doing a prototype.

Hatches

2009-02-27T20:41:00.000-08:00

The rigid hatches are2 part and removeable. A clever design. The forward part lashes to cleats on under the house roof. The larger after part slides on the forward part. The aft hatch gets a Nicro 500 vent fitted to it for ventilation. There will also be another vent in the deck forward of the house.

Sheet

2009-02-27T20:38:00.000-08:00

Here is the mainsheet rigging. Not quite as Matt drew it, but I am going to start with this and see how it works.

Rudder

2009-02-26T06:44:00.001-08:00

Just a few pics of the rudder setup. Still needs final fairing and paint. Rather than a weighted rudder as on enigma and paradox, I went with a downhaul. While I was at it, I managed to make the uphaul more complicated, as well.

Furler

2009-02-25T19:38:00.001-08:00

This is the same as the Paradox furler, although I think the standpipe (lower section) may be a different length.

Window Cutouts

2009-02-24T07:38:00.000-08:00

Working on window cutouts and cutting the lexan to shape. Also note the furler and sail rigging are complete. Will try to have photos of both the furler (same as on Paradox plan) and the hatches at some point soon.

1st Sail Pics

2009-01-05T20:11:00.000-08:00

These are with 3 people and 200 lbs of water aboard.

At Last!, Test Sail

2008-12-28T15:29:00.000-08:00

My flight to LA was canceled due to the winter storms last week. That gave me a day to get the 460 in the water, albeit with jury rigged steering, sail and ballast, and go for a sail.

Conditions were ideal, 8-10 knots, just barely starting to cap. It went upwind decently, and as expected. With 200lbs of water in jugs for ballast, I definitely had to sit in the bottom of the boat to keep it upright when powered up and on the wind. I loved being able to sit across the boat, which is hard to do in the 12 footer.

I did rather need the windows, which are not cut out yet. Upwind, I had to ease the sheet a bit to be able to sit with my eyes above the cabin coaming. There wasn't much traffic so I could sit on the bottom and sail blind for a few minutes at a time. Off the wind I could stand at my leisure without problems. I was pleased to see that I had a half knot or more on a 22' Drascombe Longboat on broad reach.

I took out 2 crew on the second trip, and the additional weight made the boat much more stable. Any two of us could stand up at the same time. Next to another Longboat, we were faster, and it felt like upwind ability was improved. With about 550lbs of crew weight and 200lbs of water, it felt like the boat had plenty of weight carrying capacity left. I guess we were around 1000lbs gross and could handle more. Clearly, ballast in this design is crucial to stability and it can carry a good load as long as it stays low in the boat.

I have been promised a few pictures and will post them if/when they arrive.

Sail Hoisted

2008-11-29T09:59:00.000-08:00

I hoisted the sail up to see how things look and get a feel for boom height and how much mast will need to be trimmed down. Looking forward to a test sail before too long. I still have to finish fabricating the furling system and bolt on the rudder, set up the steering rope and some other hardware before she will be ready to hit the water for the first time.

Project Moves to Baja!

2008-11-02T17:31:00.001-08:00

Packed for the road. I'm directing a sailing program in Baja for the winter. This trip validates one criteria for the boat; that it be trailerable by a 4 cylinder economy car. It didn't do much for my diesels' gas mileage, though. The tires would probably work our better at 8" rather than 12".

The boat made a good camper along the way and I slept in it several nights of the 5 day journey.

Continental Divide, New Mexico (yes, its a snowmobile trailer, works great!) The hatch isn't quite done so had to secure it with straps.

Morning In the Boojum forest near Catavina, Baja.

Laminating Hatch Beams

2008-11-02T11:46:00.000-08:00

Hull Faired, Primed

2008-11-02T11:41:00.000-08:00

Lots of filling and sanding, then a coat of primer on topsides and deck.

Fairing filler on bottom and transom

2008-08-25T17:02:00.000-07:00

Going with Larger Bulkhead Hatches

2008-08-23T17:33:00.000-07:00

I've already documented my bulkhead hatch plan using bucket lids, but have thrown that out in favor of larger hatches. I realized that the bucket lid hatches were going to drive me nuts. Too small.

I thought about making my own, but found these sit-on-top kayak hatches that are just the right size and may even be sturdy enough. There sure are alot of T handles to close, and that could be annoying, but it occurred to me that much of the time, the hatches won't even need to be in place. These hatch covers can be stored in the fore and aft compartments at anchor and in light airs.

Hatch Braces

2008-08-23T17:27:00.000-07:00

I noticed the hatch combing wanted some support but there was nothing specified. Matt suggested something similar to that specified on the Paradox plan and here is what I came up with. Not a flattering photo of the install, but it stiffened up the hatch combing nicely. It makes a great handle for moving around the cabin and hopefully won't be too much of a head banger.

Chine Runners on

2008-08-23T17:19:00.001-07:00

Chine runner glassed in place.

Chine Runners

2008-08-12T19:33:00.000-07:00

Builders often think they know better than the designer. I've tried to resist this temptation and so far have always found that Matt's methods are the best. Nevertheless, I thought I'd try and alternate method of creating the chine runner. Instead of laminating and shaping them in place, I thought I'd rough out the chine runners to shape off the boat. No holes needed in the hull, but not as efficient use of wood.

Here is the laminated stock I cut them from.

And the runner cores roughed to shape.

And laminated to the hull.

Final shaping/fairing of the cores and covering with 3 layers of frp with more fairing, still to be done.

Laminating the Rudder Head

2008-08-12T19:29:00.001-07:00

OK, I'm back. It has been WAAAAAY too long since I've made progress, but here we go. Heading to Baja in September with this boat, so need to make some real progress!

Mast and Rudder Work

2008-02-14T13:29:00.000-08:00

Here is the sitka spruce mast under clamps. It's a hollow box construction, but all sides taper both in width and thickness, so getting them to the right dimensions was a bit tedious. For spar building, I found a straight 2x12 and leveled that on horses with shims and a tight string to make sure it was straight. The string was also used to create straight lines on the bench. The mast was dry fit, to the lines, then realigned once glued and clamped. The copper tubing in the masthead are the lightning conductor and the wiring lead for the all round light. Both get cut off flush. The lightning protection will have a brass rod fitted to extend above the mast. The tubing gets flattened at the butt of the mast to press against a tab of the copper plate that extends through the bottom onto the bottom of the mast step.

Rudder core is getting 2 layers of 10 oz glass each side, plus more along the bottom and leading edge.

Rudder Core

2008-01-30T20:13:00.000-08:00

Rudder core arrived today. Had it computer milled. Probably better job than I could have done and saved some hours of work. Here it is out of the box, Matt doesn't skimp on rudder dimensions. Will sheath/build up with glass/epoxy.

Deck House Interior

2008-01-30T20:03:00.000-08:00

Sheathing and taping the inside of the house.

Looking aft.

Did I mention that the boat is upside down? Still pretty easy to turn over by myself and heft onto saw horses. Hoping weight is on target for 250 lbs.

Deck and House Sheathing

2008-01-21T07:06:00.001-08:00

Note boards over hatch to retain heat from small heaters placed inside.

Just look at all that sanding, filling and fairing!

Sheathing the Topsides

2008-01-16T19:39:00.001-08:00

4 oz glass epoxied onto the starboard side and lapped over onto the deck. I ran the double layers of 9oz on the bottom above chine a ways so I could cut the 4oz in half lengthwise and do both sides with one length. Adds some strength to the chine area too, but not sure I would do it that way again.

Port side. The shop is pretty cold but an electric resistance heater in the hull brings the temp up for slow hardener (West 206) to go off overnight. I discovered that I like 206 for wetting out in cold weather because it is less viscous. Does take a little longer to go off but there are never any worries about working time!

Boom

2008-01-16T19:35:00.000-08:00

Here is the hollow box construction boom epoxied up under clamps. That's every clamp in the shop, I think.

Multitasking

2008-01-14T20:28:00.000-08:00

Working on several things.

Hatch coaming is installed. I had some mahogany and used that. Heavy but thought this would be a high wear area and may finish the interior bright.

Got to get a sail made soon so want to have boom and yard made for the sailmaker. Here is a test fit of the hollow yard, made of 10mm sitka spruce. Never made spars before. These will be similar to those on Paradox but a little lighter construction and different lengths.

Getting ready to cut the 4 oz cloth for sheathing the topsides.

Going Sailing

2007-11-26T17:11:00.000-08:00

I am going to teach sailing in Baja for about a month. Should be fun but sadly it means there won't be any more progress on the Enigma 460 until the Xmas holidays.

Side Deck Carlins

2007-11-26T17:04:00.000-08:00

Fitting 'em was a little tedious but the side deck carlins are in. They look like they belong there so doesn't look like much, but noticeably strengthens the sheer.

Here what they look like from below. (Sorry photo is sideways!) (Deck beam on the left, sheer batten at top, carlin bottom.)

Laminating Deck Carlins & Filleting

2007-11-18T18:53:00.000-08:00

I've waited to install the deck carlins because there shape is taken from the installed deck house. I made a template out of scrap plywood to get the shape and am laminating them to the curve out of 2 pieces each.

Pulled the wires and added fillets on the exterior and interior of the house. The interior corners were masked off prior to applying the fillets to keep things neat. Here is some of the exterior filleting.

Deck House is On

2007-11-14T19:09:00.001-08:00

The deck house is aligned and tacked on with thickened epoxy. (My wife has changed her assessment of the project from "coffin" to "tug boat.") The house tapers to provide full width at the aft end and accomodation for yuloh storage at deck level forward.

Overhead view. The bracing was used to spread the house sides and the front and back to fit the deck. Still have to fit the side deck carlins now that the shape is established.

Decks Going On

2007-11-12T19:19:00.000-08:00

The underside of the aft deck was coated with epoxy, then the sheer and framing buttered with thickened epoxy. Temporary screws into the sheer batten hold the plywood in place while the epoxy sets.

Same process for the foredeck. The underside is coated with epoxy only as far back as the bulkhead. The rest will be coated later when I am finishing up the cabin.

The sheer batten and frames are buttered with thickened epoxy.

The foredeck section is turned over, set in position and strapped down to bend it to its approximate shape. The plywood was cut oversize, so precise fit is not critical. The edges will be trimmed after the epoxy is set.

The foredeck is clamped down with temporary screws into the deck beam and the sheer batten every 6-8 inches. The aft section will be cut away up to the deck beam once the house is fitted.

The side decks are cut out oversize from the remainder of the foredeck sheet and held in place temporarily with screws and a few impromptu braces. They will also be trimmed once the house is fitted.

Bulkhead Hatches

2007-11-10T06:13:00.000-08:00

Once the decks are on, access to the forward and aft compartments will be restricted to the hatch openings. Consequently, I am finishing up as much as possible at this point in those soon to be awkward-to-access areas. Final coat of epoxy, reinforcement for the bow eye on the stem, and the fitting of the hatches.

Matt's Enigma hatches are fashioned from cut off tops of screw-top polyethylene plastic buckets. The bucket side is epoxied to the bulkhead early in the building process. Epoxy doesn't stick to this material so the joint is mechanical. In the process of looking for screw-top buckets, I ran across a different style of screw top for a bucket called a Gamma Seal. I thought I would adapt that to the 460 instead of Matt's method. A Gamma Seal is basically a screw top adapter for the more common snap-on lid bucket. Not sure if this is going to be any better than Matt's solution, but I think it will serve.

The basic Gamma Seal lid.

A temporary template was made to hold the bolts in place while the outer ring is filled with thickened epoxy. Mold release is used to keep the template from adhering to the template.

Bolts epoxied into the outer ring. The epoxy makes the ring much more rigid, too.

Outer ring fit to the aft bulkhead.

Nylock nuts secure the ring in place. The bolt holes are very close to the edge of the cutout in the bulkhead. Less than ideal, but I'm going with it at this point. Eventually, I'll epoxy the rings in place and that should provide a secure joint. One might even leave the bolts out, fill the ring with epoxy as above and epoxy that straight to the bulkhead.

The hatch in place with screw-in cover.

Deck Framing

2007-11-04T17:18:00.000-08:00

Compound angle cuts, all the clamps I have, and the carlins are going in. The bulkheads were a little bowed, so I am using the carlin installation to set them straight.

The blocking at the deck beam is for the mast partner, and the blocking at the bulkhead is the backing for the foredeck cleat. It's been a little weird putting all this together without permanent fastners, but I am getting the hang of it. Not a single permanent fastner in the boat so far. Temporary screws (and the wires of course) make good clamps occasionally.

Aft carlins complete. Blocking is for the stern cleat.

Working on the 460 Again!

2007-10-29T04:42:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's good to be working on the boat again! I received several emails about the lack of progress and I really appreciate the interest and concern. Just got busy over the summer and had to put the project on hold. Anyhow, I have chased most of the spiders out and started where I left off.

Here's the deck house wired up. I took some pains in aligning the panel joints and wanted to preserve that, so I lightly tacked the joints with epoxy. The house still has to be fit to the deck, which will necessitate bending the lower edge. I am hoping I don't have to undo the tack joints to get a good fit. We'll see when we get that far.

The deck beam was sawn to shape out of cedar, then a mahogany cap was glued and clamped to the lower edge. Here is the beam under clamps. Matt suggested this method. Easy to shape, light, and forms an I- beam of sorts once laminated to the deck under the forward edge of the house.

Deck beam tacked in place. The ends will get filleted and tabbed in later. The temporary cross brace holds it in position nicely.

Here is the house set in place on the deckless hull. Pretty homely looking craft at this point, but there is going to more interior space than I thought. I can sit upright athwartship with several inches of clearance overhead (I am 6 ft.)

The blanks for the deck carlins were ripped from a 2" spruce plank.

Getting Ready to Start Deck Framing

2007-05-03T20:52:00.000-07:00

Right side up and the cutouts for the bulkhead hatches are made. Temporary forms are back in to keep the hull tweaked to the correct shape until the deck is on.

Cutting out the house. House sides shown here. Windows will be cut out after the house is assembled and taped. I want to get the house tacked together for reference as I lay out the deck framing.

And a Little Tape on the Stem and Stern

2007-04-13T20:17:00.000-07:00

6" tape and 3" tape at the bow. 3" tape at the stern (not shown). Also, put a second coat of epoxy on the bottom prior to turning the boat back over.

Cloth Applied to Bottom

2007-04-10T10:23:00.000-07:00

Two layers of 10 oz cloth have been applied to the bottom. Topsides look messy at this point but it won't matter after cloth is applied and the hull is faired and finished. To reduce sanding, the drips were brushed &/or squeeged out right away. Drips were knocked down while the epoxy was still soft.

I am using West epoxy and went with 206 slow hardner even though the shop was cold. Temperature in the low 30s this weekend, so I prewarmed the hull with an electric heater from underneath and had the resin & hardner warm before mixing. (I have a heated room adjacent for mixing and use an electric heating pad under the containers.) After the 1st layer was wetted out, I turned the heater under the boat off to extend working time and avoid bubbles.

Preparing to Glass the Bottom

2007-04-07T16:49:00.000-07:00

10 oz cloth is cut with a generous lap up the side. The large lap accomodates outside use of the other half of the 4 oz glass used for the interior. The additional strength above the chine won't hurt either. This is going to be a beach boat and needs to be able to cope with that environment with a certain amount of grace when the skipper is lacking in such. A second layer is cut with a slightly larger overlap.

Interior Glassed & Taped

2007-04-06T08:39:00.000-07:00

The interior is glassed and taped. I elected to not apply cloth to the bow and stern compartments and instead taped those seams with 6" biaxial tape. It doesn't look as nice but I am thinking the strength will be adequate.

The tape on the interior chine joint disappears pretty well. The interior will get at least one more coat of epoxy.

Fillets & Glassing

2007-04-01T20:02:00.000-07:00

Getting ready to apply epoxy fillets to the main cabin. The fillets are masked off since I am thinking of leaving the salon bright (natural wood). Masking the the fillets helps make a tidy job.

The fillets are in and a layer of 10 oz glass has been applied to the bottom. The bulkhead faces already have a layer of 4oz. The interior sides will each get a layer of 4 oz and the a layer of tape will finish the joints.

Stitched, Tacked & Sheered

2007-03-26T14:17:00.000-07:00

All stitched up.

After checking alignment, chines and bulkeads are tacked in place with thickened epoxy dispensed via a large syringe. This shows the bow section with a temporary form.

Sheer battens are ripped from Sitka Spruce, then fitted. They are glued and held in place with temporary screws. It might have been better tack the chines after installing the sheer batten .

Stitching Up the Hull

2007-03-21T18:25:00.000-07:00

Bow stitched loosely together around the bulkheads.

Stitching toward the stern.

Loosely stitching the chine.

Bending the Forefoot to Shape

2007-03-15T21:45:00.000-07:00

Forefoot gets bent to shape.

A temporary form and bulkhead help get the shape right. Joint is tacked with epoxy between the wire stitches and will later be filleted both sides and taped before the ears are trimmed off.

Cutting

2007-03-14T21:37:00.000-07:00

Just finished cutting the side panels. Both panels clamped together and cut out at the same time.

The bottom is cut out. The "ears" will facilitate bending the forefoot to shape.

Laying Out Bottom and Sides

2007-03-12T21:26:00.000-07:00

Cutting lines, and bulkhead locations are laid out from the plans onto the plywood.

Laying out the foreward end of the bottom panel.

Laying out the transom.

Scarfin'

2007-03-10T21:09:00.000-08:00

Got some epoxy and plywood rounded up. Built a work table. Next order of business is scarfing the plywood.

Bottom is from 2 sheets of 9mm (3/8") Okuome. Sides are from 2 sheets 6mm (1/4") each side. 3 scarfs total.

2 sheets of 9mm clamped to work table, then beveled with belt sander.

Put bevels together, glue and clamp.

Sand the scarf flat to get a 16' sheet of plywood.

The One and Only Truly Original....

2007-02-28T20:47:00.000-08:00

The original 12 foot Enigma, designed and built by Matt Layden. Ready to roll for the 2006 Ultimate Florida Challenge:

Here under sail:

Now imagine stretching the hull to 15+ feet (460cm) and a rigid deckhouse in place of canvas. Voila! Enigma 460.
OK, so its still a drawing. I'll be working on that.